Amazon's reviewers give Kindle e-book reader just two out of five stars

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Oh dear. Just three days after it launched, the Amazon Kindle e-book reader has been slated across the internet, and even on its very own sale page on the Amazon store. Seems their reader-submitted reviews have turned around and bitten them on their backsides.

Just 2.5/5 stars, for the $399 device which has seen 503 Amazon users leaving their thoughts on the page, with at the time of writing this – 2351hrs on Wednesday night – the majority of people (180) giving it just one star. As you’d expect, one reviewer did ask the question “why not just get an iPhone????????” (obsessively-used question marks reviewer’s own), but with reports the e-book reader sold out in 5.5hours, not everyone feels the same way obviously.

Yes, the majority of the reviews were from people who just saw a photo of the Kindle but never actually used one. I decided to buy one based upon reviews from beta testers who actually tested pre-released Kindles for several months. The majority of their reviews where very positive.

In addition, demand for the Kindle has reached the frenzy level. On eBay Kindle’s are selling for up to $1,200!

The killer app for me on the Kindle was the keyboard and the search feature. I do extensive research so being able to search through dozens of books for keywords is essential. Can’t do that with the Sony reader.

Jp

22nd November 2007 at 7:45 am

An awful lot of those reviews on Amazon are clearly from people who haven’t actually bought one. Those that describe their own experiences of the device, rather than just the idea, are much more positive.